Authors Note: Hey guys, this chapter is pretty short, but I have a feeling that you'll all enjoy it imensly...except those of you who were pulling for Lily to get back with Severus...haha. And thanks for all of your reviews, they keep me going, I swear. I have some more chapters to post soon, but if you're bored, go check out my too many tears to cry story. Or some of the stories in my favorites, theyre good too. So anyway, enjoy! I am posting earlier than scheduled in honor of exams being over, and also in hoinor of school being out soon for the holidays. yippeee!! Anyway, happy holidays my friends from me to you.
Chapter 7
The Apple and the Tree
The next morning Lily woke up happy. She remembered last nights conversation, and realized that James was right. There was no point blaming herself. There was nothing that she could have done. She couldn't stop herself from being scared, however.
But the morning was bright, and she was well rested, and it was hard to be sad and scared when the birds were chirping and the sun was turning your bedroom lovely shades of gold and yellow.
She went downstairs smiling and found Anne in the kitchen, obviously attempting to back something, although it was unclear to Lily exactly what.
"Lily dear! There you are. Did you have a nice sleep?" Asked Anne cheerfully. She seemed to always be happy.
"Yes thank you, very nice." Lily said. "How about you?" Lily asked politely.
"Oh, aren't you sweet. I don't sleep that much actually. I was working on my thesis until late, I was just about to go to bed when I got distracted. I remembered that I had been making cupcakes and came rushing down here only to remember that I don't even know how to make cupcakes! It had been a dream after all!" Lily laughed. "And that got me thinking that maybe I should learn, so I've been trying to get this recipe right ever since." Lily laughed again, until she realized that Anne wasn't joking. She must have been awake all night.
"Would you like some help?" Lily asked, looking around at the messy and disheveled kitchen.
Anne, however, look perfectly pristine as always. Lily was amazed that someone could have been awake all night working on a thesis and cooking and still look perfectly well put together and wide awake. Although her dress did appear somewhat wrinkled, and Lily noticed that it was the same dress she had been wearing the previous afternoon.
"That would be lovely. Thank you dear. Why don't I just nip upstairs and shower first though? I lost track of time and I've been wearing this same outfit for over a day now!" She declared. Lily smiled, Anne appeared to have had the same thoughts as herself.
Lily wandered out of the kitchen to find something to amuse herself while waiting for Anne to finish her shower. She saw that James and Sirius and Mr. Potter were all outside on their brooms.
Lily ventured outside herself and sat in one of the many cushioned lawn chairs on the patio. She watched the men tossing a quaffle around for a while until Sirius noticed her.
"Want to join us Lily?" He called. "We can play a little two-on-two." He yelled to her from the field, lowering down to the ground.
"Oh no thank you. I wouldn't be very good, I would just bring down whoever my partner was." Lily said laughing lightly.
"Oh do Lily! It'll be fun!" Called Mr. Potter, also dropping to the ground. James dove too, looking a little suspicious of his father and Sirius, wondering what they were planning to do.
"I don't know, I don't have a broom or anything, and I'm not very good at flying." Lily told them cautiously.
"Borrow one of James's old ones, you wouldn't mind, would you son?" Asked Mr. Potter of his son who was walking towards Lily a few paces behind his father and friend.
"Not at all, but if Lily doesn't want to play then we shouldn't ma-"
"Nonsense, of course she wants to play, don't you Lily? It can't possibly be any fun just sitting here watching." Said Mr. Potter enthusiastically. "Acio Cleansweep!" He called, revealing his wand from an inside pocket.
"Well, I suppose I could-" Lily started.
"Excellent, here you go." Said Mr. Potter exuberantly, thrusting the broom at her chest. Lily took it, smiling a little nervously.
She followed the men across the field and mounted the broom. She had not flown since the first year when they had had their flying lessons. She did not really feel very comfortable in the air, it always made her slightly queasy.
"Up you come." Called Sirius from above her. She realized that the others had all already taken off, and were waiting for her. Reluctantly she pushed off from the ground, zooming into the air. To be sure, James's broom was much nicer than the brooms at school, and she had much more control than she had ever had during her flying lessons, but she was still a little rusty and not entirely sure of what she was doing.
"Left." She muttered to her broom, staring at it fixedly, trying to coax it to turn so that she would be facing the others. Instead her broom spun in a circle, making her feel more than a little ridiculous.
"Not like that, Lil." James said, laughing as he flew over to help her. "Look, like this." He showed her how to apply pressure to the handle so that the broom would do what she wanted.
"Oh." She said, blushing. She didn't like not being good at things.
"Ok so let's have me and James against Lily and Mr. Potter." Sirius suggested.
"That doesn't seem fair! you boys are both young and know what you're doing, I'm too old and Lily is too inexperienced." Mr. Potter argued.
"You're not old, Mr. Potter." Sirius told him.
"I am so, and either way the teams aren't fair, you two can practically read each others thoughts." Mr. Potter declared.
"Well so can you and James." Sirius rebutted.
"So than what about Lily and James against you and I?" Mr. Potter suggested.
"That is, of course, unless you would rather not be partnered with an old fogy like me." Mr. Potter asked Sirius. "Or perhaps you'd rather have Lily be your partner yourself?" Said Mr. Potter, obviously hinting something. Sirius scowled, and then laughed playfully, his sense of humor and fun getting the better of him.
"It would be my pleasure to play with you, Mr. Potter." Sirius said. "We'll show them how it's really done, won't we?" Sirius declared enthusiastically.
Just as Lily was about to be humiliated beyond all comparable measure, Anne emerged from the house.
"There you are Lily, what are you lot up to?" Anne asked.
"We were just about to school James and Lily in a little two-on-two, Anne." Sirius told her.
"Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I am going to have to steal Lily away from you boys." Anne informed them. She winked at Lily as Lily sighed gratefully. Anne laughed.
Lily flew down to the ground with minor difficulties and dismounted her broom.
"You can leave the broom on the patio Lily." Mr. Potter said regretfully. "Maybe we can play later."
"Yes, maybe we can." Lily agreed, although she rather hoped not.
"Thank you for saving me from what I'm sure would have been an extremely painful and humiliating experience." Lily said to Anne as soon as they were back inside and could hear to boys yelling at each other over the rules of their invented game.
"You have no idea how happy I am to finally have another woman in the house!" Anne said. "It's usually so dull around here, all by myself. It was my pleasure to rescue you." Anne told her. "So Lily, will you teach me to make cupcakes the muggle way?" Anne and Lily had a wonderful afternoon making cupcakes.
The first batch was ruined because when Lily turned her back for a moment to preheat the oven Anne added 2 cups of salt rather than 2 teaspoons. Another time Lily was putting the paper in the cupcake tin when Anne added 4 white eggs rather than 4 egg whites, ruining a second batch. The cakes in the third batch were burned because Anne set the oven to 530 degrees rather than 350. Finally they managed to scrounge a decent batch, and they actually tasted pretty good.
At the smell of cupcakes cooking, the boys returned to the house with ruddy cheeks from an afternoon of flying. They ate cupcakes heartily, and soon there was nothing left to show for Lily and Anne's labors except the contented expressions on everyone's faces.
"I hope you never insult my cooking again." Anne said, addressing her husband with a smile, flushed from her victory.
"I never will, so long as you keep making cupcakes like that." He said, planting a kiss on her lips. "We'll have to keep this one around, won't we?" He said, gesturing towards Lily and winking at James.
Lily and James both blushed, it was impossible to miss his all too plain meaning. They both looked in different directions, causing the other three occupants of the room to laugh uproariously at their discomfort.
"So Prongs, what do you want to do tonight?" Sirius asked after the laughing had died down.
"I dunno Padfoot, what do you propose?" James replied.
"Prongs? Padfoot?" Lily asked, puzzled. She did not remember having heard those names mentioned before.
"They're just a nicknames." James said, shrugging.
"What is there to do around here? Not much trouble to get into out in the middle of nowhere, is there?" Sirius, or Padfoot as he was apparently called, said.
"No, thank goodness, otherwise I'm sure you boys would have gotten into it." Anne said, rather more severely than Lily had heard her before. "I've been meaning to talk to you boys about this." She said firmly, ignoring her husbands looks. "I got notices from your teachers again about your behavior at school! Jinxes being used outside the classroom, cursing people needlessly, what is this all about?" She asked, directing the question at James, although it was clear that she was including Sirius as well.
"It only happened a few times, mum." James told her.
"Yeah, honestly Anne, it's nothing." Sirius told her quickly.
"Not according to your teachers. I know I'm not your mother Sirius, so there's not much I can do, but James you will not have parental consent to go into Hogsmede at all until these negative reports stop. I warned you last time this happened! I did not raise my son to behave this way! I will not have a bully for a child, so this nonsense had better stop, and soon." She said, putting up her hands when James and Mr. Potter both started to argue. "And if you dare to give it to him behind my back you will be sleeping on the couch for the rest of the foreseeable future!" She said, addressing her husband now. "Don't even try it, as I will be writing to the school to tell them." James sulked, as did Sirius.
"Mom! That's not fair!" James said, outraged.
"And I suppose it was fair when you cursed those people for no reason?" She demanded. That shut him up. "Don't even try anything, young man." Anne told him. James skulked off a few moments later when it was clear that she had said all she wanted to say.
Lily looked at James's retreating back and then at Anne, not sure what she should do.
"I'm sorry you had to see that Lily. He's a good boy really, I know that, he just gets so out of control." Anne said with a sigh. Lily did not really know what to say. "I'm sorry to put you in this position, Lily, it's not fair to you I know, but will you go talk to him? He doesn't listen to me." Anne said, looking haggard. "He thinks of me as a pal, not as a parent. And you don't help either!" She said, flaming up at her husband again. Lily quietly slipped away to find James and Sirius, avoiding getting caught up in another fight. "You're just like him you know!" She heard Anne saying. "Well I suppose the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree, but honestly! When you act the same way as a teenage boy…"
Lily couldn't hear the rest of her statement as she walked farther away from the kitchen. She smiled a little, it was true, James and his father were very much alike.
"Sorry you had to see that, Lily." James said, ambushing him as she rounded a corner. "Now will you let me apologize for my parents?" He was smiling, although he did look embarrassed.
"No. You've seen how dysfunctional my family is, at least your parents are nice to guests. And I like your parents." Lily said. "Every family is supposed to have a little dysfunction, that's the way it works. Otherwise it wouldn't be a family." Lily told him.
"I suppose so." James said. Lily as amazed to see that he was actually chuckling at her.
"What? What's funny?" She demanded.
"Oh, nothing." He told her. "Honest, nothing." He told her as she narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
"All right. You know James, you really should stop misbehaving so much." Lily told him.
"Oh Lily, you are so naive. You haven't seen anything yet." Sirius said, walking up behind her. "Just wait until school starts." Lily rolled her eyes in response to that, they were all talk she was sure.
The next few weeks were very pleasant ones. Anne and Mr. Potter had apparently made up, as they were acting even more lovey dovey than usual.
One afternoon they went into Diagon Alley to shop for their school supplies. Lily was once again a prefect, and Anne was very proud of her. She had not been in the least surprised when neither Sirius or James was selected and gave them a lecture about how they could never expect to get honors like that if they continued to behave the way they did.
Other than that, they settled into a routine. Lily woke up at her leisure every morning, and went down and got herself some breakfast. Anne was usually in the kitchen or catching up on the sleep she hadn't gotten the night before.
Lily felt as comfortable in the Potter home as she did in her own home. She would sometimes sit outside on the patio if the weather was nice, and she managed constantly to avoid playing two-on-two with the boys.
On the rare occasions that she was trapped into getting on a broom, Anne always arrived in the knick of time. Lily sometimes wondered whether or not she had some kind of second sight.
Afternoons were for cooking with Anne or helping her with her thesis on muggles. Anne bombarded her with questions about electronics and plugs and telephones. When she found out that James had watched television and used a remote she was very jealous and excited.
In the evening they would have dinner and tea and sometimes play games as a family or else she, James, and Sirius would go upstairs and hang out or do homework.
She and James became very close. He understood how she felt about things, and he made her feel safe and secure with who she was. They could talk about anything. Sirius too grew accustomed to Lily's presence and stopped trying to prank her at every opportunity. He had been jealous of the intrusion at first, but was now friendly with her.
One night, the night before term started, Lily and James and Sirius were all sitting in the room with the pool table, not doing much of anything.
"Well, I'm out." Sirius said. His voice sounded odd, as if he were reading a script. "I want to be well rested, tomorrow's a big day after all." Sirius said. "And I need my beauty sleep." He stood and stretched, yawning. He then left the room quickly, not looking over his shoulder.
Lily looked quizzically at James, who shifted in his seat, avoiding her eyes.
"So, Prongs." She said, laughing as she always did whenever she thought of the nickname. They had still failed to tell her why they had chosen the nicknames they did, but she had stopped thinking anything of it. "What shall we do with ourselves this evening?" Lily asked. It was early still, which was why it was so odd for Sirius to be going to sleep.
"It's really nice outside, fancy a walk?" James asked.
"Sure." Lily said. The moon was full so the patio outside was flooded with a soft moonlight. It reminded her of her first night at the Potter's house when she had been crying and James had comforted her. She smiled a little, filled with a mixture of pain and pleasure. Dumbledore had not contacted her with any information about her father. "So…" she said after they had been walking for a few moments without speaking.
"Wait here." James said abruptly, stopping in the middle of the field where they played quiddich and running back to the house. Lily looked puzzled, but didn't have a chance to say anything as he had already disappeared into the dark.
She turned around, feeling a little scared. It was suddenly much colder without James's presence by her side, and she was not overly fond of the darkness, with or without a full moon.
It was oddly quiet outside, save for the occasional chirping of the crickets and the rustling of the grass. An owl hooted, causing Lily to jump. The wind whistled through the trees and Lily turned to see where the noise had come from. Just then she heard a whistling not made from the wind and was turning when she was suddenly in the air.
She felt James's arm around her waist and his hand over her mouth. Her legs were dangling in midair, and she tried to scream but the sound was muffled. She would have elbowed James, but if she had she would have fallen to the hard ground, with only a thin layer of grass to cushion her fall.
James removed the hand from her mouth, making a shushing sound, letting her know that she was to be quiet. She didn't even breath from fear. She was in the dark, 20 feet in the air. She felt the broom shake a little as James lifted her on in front of him.
"What do you think you're doing Potter?" She hissed venomously. "You know I don't like flying!" She told him in a loud whisper.
"I finally have you in the air, Moonshine." He said. He had taken to calling her that as a reference, she could only imagine, to their late night encounter with the moon filling the bedroom. The name always caused a flicker of joy in her stomach. "You've been avoiding coming up here all summer, I couldn't let you go back to school without having a good fly." He said cheekily. His tone made her nervous, although she couldn't help but feel safe with the pressure of his forearms around her waist. "Hold on." He whispered in her ear through her hair.
She groped behind her to find a grip on his waist as he dove. They flew in loops and turns, rocketing in the air one second, and then diving the next, leveling off after a few moments. After the first bout of nausea, she had to admit it was rather fun.
"So admit it, Moonshine, you had a good time." He said as they leveled off, once again 20 feet in the air.
"I suppose it wasn't so bad." She relented, her hands still holding tightly to his waist.
She noticed that he was no longer gripping the handle, but that his hands had wandered to her waist. She could feel his breath on her neck and it sent a little shiver down her back. She could feel the hair on the back of her neck rising. He brushed her wind tossed hair out off her neck and kissed it. His lips were soft and warm, just as she remembered them. His mouth made its way up her neck and she turned her head to meet them with hers as they reached her face. They kissed for a while, suspended in midair, before Lily pulled back.
"James-" She said breathlessly. He kissed her open mouth again, harder now. Her arms were over her head wrapped around his neck. She toyed with his hair between her fingers before remembering herself. "James!" She said more firmly, although still whispering hoarsely as she did not want to wake the rest of the house. He could not hear her fully as their lips were still together, but he could feel that she was trying to say something.
"What, isn't this what you want?" He asked, pulling back.
"I don't know James. We can't just-" She said, not knowing exactly what it was they couldn't do.
"I thought that we had something going on between us." He said, a little sadly. "I'm sorry if I was wrong." The broom sank slowly to the ground as his heart fell. The lovely Lily had rejected him again.
"James, I'm sorry." She said lamely.
"You have nothing to be sorry for, Lil, it was my mistake." He said.
They walked back to the house, James holding the broom, in silence. Lily felt upset with both herself and with James. She wanted him, or at least she thought she did.
But things were so messed up right now, and she wanted to keep James as a friend. She didn't want to mess with that, but maybe she already had. She needed someone to talk to, but felt that if that person was also the person she was kissing, it would complicate things. And what would happen if things went wrong again, as they always did? Who would she talk to then? Not Holly, certainly. And not Janette or Caroline. No, it was safer if she and James stayed friends. That was how it had to be, to protect their friendship.
When he left her at her door and turned to enter his own bedroom she felt a pang somewhere in the region of her chest. He seemed a little disappointed. 'Well what did you expect?' Lily asked herself as she closed the door to her bedroom. 'That he would be elated that you had rejected him again?' She changed angrily and dove under the covers, pounding the pillows. 'Why does he always have to mess things up right when they're getting to be really good?' was her last waking thought.
That night she had dreams of flying with James, her stomach plunging and rising with the broom, his arms around her waist, the wind blowing through her hair...
Authors Note: Okay, i did my job, now you do yours! Tell me what you think/what you want to happen next!! Yay! haha, now go push the little button that says "Go"!!